The present invention relates generally to article storing and dispensing apparatus of the general type including a container for storing and dispensing nested articles such as ice-cream cones, cups and the like and more particularly to an apparatus utilizing a specifically designed article release arrangement which minimizes the possibility of inadvertently withdrawing more than one article at a time.
Presently, there are many different types of prior art article storing and dispensing devices including an article release arrangement of one form or another. In some of these devices, the article release arrangements are fixed for establishing a discharge opening of fixed size. In others, the article release arrangements are adjustable for varying their associated discharge openings. Moreover, there has been a concern in the prior art for the problem of inadvertently withdrawing more than one article at a time. In one specific example, there has been an attempt to solve this problem by utilizing an array of long and short fingers fixedly positioned around and depending down from the discharge end of its container. In this arrangement, the shorter fingers are relatively stiffer at their lower ends than the lower portions of the longer fingers so as to prevent the dispensing of more than a single cup at a time. While this technique certainly discloses the desire to prevent withdrawal of more than one article at a time it does not seem any more reliable in this regard than the utilization of bristles as disclosed in some of the other arrangements. The bristles seem to function in the same general way to separate the article being withdrawn from the rest of the stack, that is, by utilizing an upper group of bristles to retain all of the articles in the stack above the one being withdrawn. Both of these approaches rely entirely on the inherent strength of their retaining means (e.g. the shorter fingers or bristles) and both are subject to wear.
As will be seen hereinafter, the present invention is directed to an article holder and dispenser utilizing an uncomplicated and economical article retaining arrangement which is purposely designed to release articles one at a time in a reliable way and without wear to or fear of failure of its article retaining components. Moreover, as will also be seen hereinafter, the article retaining arrangement disclosed herein is one which accommodates a relatively large tolerance in the size of the articles retained and also automatically indicates when the last article in the stack reaches the lowermost position.